title: Recognition memory for words and faces in primary degenerative dementia of the Alzheimer type and normal old age.
abstract: The suitability of Warrington's Recognition Memory Test (RMT) for discriminating between patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type and nondemented elderly subjects was tested in a study with 44 patients (aged 59 to 94) and 45 normal elderly (aged 69 to 92). The patients showed a significant memory deficit, both in Recognition Memory for Words (RMW) and Recognition Memory for Faces (RMF), even when the scores were corrected for verbal intelligence score (WAIS Vocabulary) or a measure of visuoperceptual ability (Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices, CPM). Word-face discrepancy scores did not differentiate between dementia and normal old age. At the 95%-specificity level, the sensitivity of RMW and RMF for the detection of memory impairment in dementia was 81% and 100% for subjects below 80, and, less satisfactory, 59% and 76% for subjects of 80 years or older. Correlational analysis showed that the patients' RMW and RMF scores were moderately correlated (r = .40). The significant correlation (r = .45) between CPM and RMF suggests that visuoperceptual deficits are involved in deficient face recognition.
authors.affiliation: Stichting Verpleeghuizen Nederland, Department of Psychogeriatrics Laren.
authors.forename: H F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Diesfeldt
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011594:Psychometrics; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D014706:Verbal Learning